I forgot to mention the mechanics of my downfall in bicycle racing.
In the Junior Road Race in the Nationals in 1978 I was having a bad day. I was on an extremely low budget and was staying in a pup tent outside of Milwaukee and riding my bicycle to most of the races in “Super Week” the week before the Nationals. It was almost a tropical like climate that year and it seemed like it rained hard every other day, and I didn't have a rain fly on my little tent. So it seemed like everything I had became either moldy or rusty. Plus there were these little mosquitos that would crawl through the netting and bite you while you were sleeping. I ended up with a bad case of impetigo on my groin which made riding uncomfortable.
So on the big day I ended up feeling kind of crappy and hanging out in the pack for most of the race. There was a break away group of eight riders with LeMonde and some of the other favorites ahead of the main group. I was disgusted with myself for missing the break. I was berating myself asking what I was even there for? So on the last lap I decided to attack at the bottom of the “big” hill and put some space between me and the other riders. I made my way to the front of the pack and when I shifted down and stood on it... my chain came off and got stuck between my frame and the inner chain ring.
When I got it back on the bike I was angry and bursting with adrenaline and I quickly caught back up and made my way through the other riders making it back to the front at the top of the hill. From there I just kept going. One rider caught my wheel. When I looked back at him he indicated that he couldn't take a pull. So I just spun my pedals as fast as I could down the descent. We didn't have electronic speedometers back then but were going very fast and the other rider lost my wheel when we reached the level portion along the shores of Lake Michigan.
I did not know how far it was up to the lead group, but after a couple of miles when the course started to straighten out I caught a glimpse of them. I got into a tight tuck and pedaled furiously. As I got closer I could see that they were jockeying for position and it seemed that they were going much slower than I was. I missed catching the group by a hundred yards at the finish. So I ended up getting ninth in the road race at the Nationals that year.
The next year I received offers from other teams after the first of the year with travel opportunities, but I had stupidly not resigned from my current team and they would not release me. So I had to ride unattached for the first six months of the year.
In the first training race of the year, I wasn't paying attention and caught someones wheel ahead of me and fell down and half the team I was planning to get on rode over the top of me and crashed too. So everyone was mad at me... my old teammates and my prospective new teammates. I got banged up pretty bad and disillusioned. The weather was pretty good that Spring so I started chasing girls and water skiing with my friends instead of training hard.
My first stage race of the year was up in Penticton BC I had to pay double entry fees to enter since I was still unattached. It came to like $100 which was a lot of money to me back then. I didn't have my previous fitness level; people were still irritated with me from the crash and switching teams. I had been at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and had seen what a joke the USCF coaching staff was like at a national level. I can't even go into it all. But the magic and the illusion was gone for me.
I ended up going to college for nine months, but when my family fell onto hard times I went to work in our lumber mill. (thanks eco-nazis and spotted owl)
btt